Bingo! This is exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks Michael

Jim

"Michael" wrote in message
oups.com...
Speaking as someone who has actually done it this way (gotten the A&P
purely on the basis of part-time non-professional small-GA experience
without ever having had a job in aviation maintenance, working
exclusively on my planes and what my friends owned) I can tell you a
bit about it.

The first thing you have to understand is that the hard part of getting
the A&P is getting the FAA to allow you to take the test. The tests
themselves are a joke. There are three written tests that cover a huge
amoung of material, mostly worthless. They are handled the same was as
any other FAA test - you buy the study book with all the quetions and
answers, you study for a couple of days, you take the test. Lather,
rinse, repeat.

The practical test is geared so that a kid who just graduated from an
18 month community college program or has spent the last 30 months
working in a shop as gofer, sweeper, king of odd jobs, and occasional
assistant wrench-turner can pass it. For someone who has actually got
4800 hours working on airplanes, it's a sick joke. I know one guy who
spent most of his sweeping out the hangar, after compression-checking
one jug and driving a couple of rivets.

Once you understand that the primary barrier to entry is convincing an
FAA bureaucrat to let you take the test, rather than the test itself,
you begin to understand that there CAN'T be a simple, sensible,
published set of rules that tells you how. Otherwise, there would be
no real barrier to entry at all. With that in mind, I can give you
some general guidelines:

1 - Don't believe anything said by someone who hasn't actually done it
that way - that includes anyone who worked in aviation maintenance
professionally, in the military, etc. It won't help you.

2 - Don't believe anything the FAA tells you either. The last thing
the FAA wants is to give an airplane owner who has a professional
career outside aviation an A&P ticket.

On paper, it's very simple. You need 4800 hours of part time
experience, which covers a variety of skills, engines, and accessories.
You need a letter from an A&P attesting to this. Then you go to the
FSDO, get your signoff, and take your tests.

In practice, the fed will do everything possible to deny you that
signoff. You have to bring along enough paperwork to scare him into
believing that if he won't sign you off, you will have a good chance of
suing him and winning, thus damaging his career. Be absolutely polite,
but don't back down an inch. Every piece of paper is 100% real. Every
minute of claimed experience is 100% real. Any insinuation otherwise
is acusing the A&P who signed the letter of lying.

So what kind of paper?

A mechanic's log is good. Every time you work on your plane, log it.
Log every minute. The time spent to open up the hangar, get the tools,
clean the plane before and/or after, put the tools away, sweep up - it
all counts. Don't worry about being too neat. Greasy fingerprints are
fine. As long as the N-numbers, dates, and times are legible, you're
good.

Aircraft logbook and form 337 copies. If an entry is made into an
aircraft logbook and/or form 337 and you did ANY of the work (even if
you just fetched tools, brought the mechanic cofee, and listened to him
explain what he was doing) then you make a copy for yourself.
Remember, it's about quantity, not quality. An hour spent with a can
of LPS-2 getting the rust worked out of a throwover yoke is the same as
an hour spent internally timing a magneto.

Variety counts, though. You won't get your signoff if you have worked
on a total of three airplanes in your life. Make sure your A&P gives
you chance to work on other airplanes. A compression check may be the
same on a Cessna 150 as it is on a Piper Lance, but if you've done
compression checks on ten different makes and models, that's ten
different makes and models you have worked on. Remember - quantity,
not quality.

Once you're close to the hour requirements, start searching the FAA
sites. You will find a sample letter for your A&P to write. Don't get
creative. Stick to the format exactly. The only things that change
are names and dates.

Pay stubs would be great, but you don't have any. Still, the question
of how you were compensated would come up. Did you get free flight
instruction? Free maintenance? Remember, the FAA and the IRS don't
communicate.

Be prepared to answer why you want this. Wanting to work on your own
is NOT a good answer. The right answer is you plan to open a shop as
your retirement. Again, remember the FAA and IRS don't communicate.

Michael